"MR HRNSBY'S SOCIALISM."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8486, 13 July 1907, Page 6

"MR HRNSBY'S SOCIALISM."

To the Editor. Sir,—l would not insult the intelligence of your readers by attempting to argue with a man who, of set pu impose, distorts the meaning of words, and who sets at defiance facts as they are known to all students of Sociology. Mr Wilks is, I understand, a clergyman (unattached)—a follower of that Lowly One who said: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another"; and who also said: "Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself." Mr Wilks has, apparently, never read any of the literature of truth concerning Socialism. I would ask him to do so before he again ventures to brand with infamy the men who seek nothing good of their fellows, and to whom the words: "Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfil the lav/ of Christ," are a sacred truth and trust. If Mr Wilks will read the sermon preached bv the Rev. John Glasse, M.A., D.D., Old Greyfriars' Church. Edinburgh, he may rise up from his reading a sadder, but certainly a wiser man. But if Mr Wilks disregards the Rev. John Glasse, and the literature of the Fabian Society perhaps he will deign to read again the sermon on the Mount. If he denies his Master, as did another personage for the sake of silver pieces,, and will not "have this Man to rule over" him, will he come right down to the commonplace, and retd his own condemnation in Webster's (unabridged) Dictionary. My reply to Mr Massey appears to me to fit Mr Wilks so beautifully that I quote in full from Hansard, No. 2, pp. 54-55, July 3rd:— "Mr Hornshy (Wairarapa)— Sir,— in the course of the speech by the leader of the Opposition I interjected by way of a smile aloud, and immediately upon my doing so the leader of the Opposition turned round and said that I was one of the greatest single-taxers in the House, a Socialist, and all that sort of thing. If he desires to know I am happy to tell him that lam a Socialist. lam happy to tell the I louse' and the country, if it is interested in such a humble man as myself, that I am a Socialist. Sir, I range myself alongside some of the best ■ men of the universe, and under the banner of the first and the greatest Socialist that ever lived—the founder of that religion which is usually called Christian. I dare say the leader of the Opposition makes a profession, at any rate, of that religion; and I tell him, and I tell every other profjssor of that religion, that the first and the greatest Socialist was the founder of the Christian religion, and I am proud to enrol myself as one of the humblest" of the followers of that great Socialist. lam not going to enter into a discussion of the merits or the demerits of professed socialism, as the world understands it, and sometimes misunderstands it, but I say with that clergyman who spoke not long ago in public that cither the Christian religion ought to be more socialistic or we ought to bring more socialism more Christian socialism—to bear into our national life. I believe, myself, that the best work at y man can do in this country or any ether country is to try to "lift up the people —wrongly called the common people, and sometimes called the "herd" — the best work any public man can do is to try to lift up his fellow men to a higher plane of living, to get them to have a higher conception of the rights of manhood and the dignity of labour. Then, Sir, we shall begin to understand what socialism mians." — I am, etc., J. T. M. HORNSBY. Wellington, July 12th, 1907.